Strong ties, social networks, and the diffusion of new ideas

Abstract

Weak ties, and the small-world networks that they are instrumental in creating, have been central to recent applications of network analysis in archaeology. However, there are issues, including the idea that innovations always come from beyond a localised group or area, the equality of nodes, and the notion of totally random connections represented by weak ties. Successful diffusion relies on trust; and trust requires strong social ties—these more ‘redundant’ ties (in network terms) possess more ‘bandwidth’ (in social terms) because they are more frequent contacts, they pass on larger, richer flows of information and innovation. The ‘strength of weak ties’ hypothesis is no longer appropriate when considering social changes which have profound impacts such as religious conversion or radicalisation: weak ties do not have the necessary social power to enable adoption of new religious, political, or social ideas. Strong ties feature emotional intensity, shared time, experience and memories, mutual confiding, and reciprocity. Finding various kinds of strong ties in the past, the ties that bind communities into trusting relationships—through places, narratives, and systems—will help us to understand how fundamental alterations in religious, political, and ideological behaviours spread through social networks and contribute to broader-scale systemic changes.